ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abu Talhah relates—on the authority of Anas—that he said:

“My mother gave birth, and she sent the newborn with me to the Prophet ﷺ. I said, ‘This is my brother.’ He took the child, chewed a date, and rubbed the inside of his mouth with it (1).

Humayd reports that Anas said: A son of Umm Sulaym became gravely ill, so Abu Talhah went out to the mosque, and the boy died. Umm Sulaym prepared his body and said, ‘Do not tell him.’

He returned, and she had set supper for him; he ate, and then was intimate with his wife. Toward the end of the night she said:

‘Abu Talhah, have you noticed that the family of so-and-so borrowed something, and when it was requested back they refused to return it, and that distressed them?’

He replied, ‘They have not acted fairly.’

She said, ‘Your son was a loan from Allah, and He has taken him back.’

He thereupon said, ‘We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return,’ and he praised Allah. The next morning he went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and when the Prophet saw him he said, ‘May Allah bless the two of you for the night you spent.’

Later she conceived ʿAbd Allah ibn Abu Talhah, and she gave birth to him at night. She sent the baby with me, and I took along a few ajwah dates. I brought him to the Prophet ﷺ while he was applying ointment to some of his camels and branding them. I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, Umm Sulaym has given birth tonight.’

He chewed some of the dates, mixed them with his saliva, and placed them in the child’s mouth. The infant began to smack his lips, whereupon he said: